The scene with Priam is indeed the most important section but there is another

critical comparison here to make in understanding the Iliad and that moment; the
one between Priam and Agamemnon as they relate to Achilles. Both Priam and
Agamemnon are the leaders of their opposing sides and yet in character they are
very different. Very early on Agamemnon slights and takes from Achilles - as is his
right according to traditions of war - but Achilles is insulted and enraged, to the
point that he nearly kills Agamemnon if not for being restrained by Athena who
holds him back by the hair. (Very great symbolism here) Achilles quits his part of
the fighting because of this (there is more to it than that but this works for now)
and sulks on the beach as his fellow Greeks are getting their butts kicked.

What is important here is to remember the motives of the different sides. The
Greeks are there at Troy under the excuse to rescue Helen but that is really just
that - an excuse. The ancient Greeks loved war and any good excuse was more than
enough justification for the opportunity for both glory in war and the plundering
of riches and heirlooms of renowned. Achilles is the personification of the ideal
Greek warrior; he is virtually invincible in marshal skills on the field of battle.
(Alexander the Great often slept with his copy of the Iliad under his pillow and
strove always to be a living Achilles) He is successful (Achilles, not Alexander)
in the beginning of the war in both defeating his enemies and taking plunder - in
short, he is the best Greek anyone could hope to be. Agamemnon then comes along
and takes that away from him, both his honor of glory and his plunder.

Much later, after all his sulking and bemoaning - and making a long series of
events very short - Achilles is restored to glory and his place as the best Greek
is returned to him by his own hands after killing Hector - with a lot of help from
the Gods. But this is bitter sweet because Achilles knows something very important
from the outset of the war. His mother Thetis was a Nereid, a Greek sea nymph, who
was destined to give birth to a son 'greater that his father' - who ever that
father may be. At one point, Zeus himself pursued Thetis which means that Zeus
could have been Achilles' father at one point if things had gone differently. This
shows you Achilles' true potential and true tragedy in what could have been his; he
could have been greater than the king of the Gods himself! Yet this was taken away
from him when Zeus was convinced not to pursue Thetis and instead married off to a
Greek king, Achilles' mortal father. What's more important is that Thetis due to
her state of divinity had a vision of Achilles before he left for the Trojan war
where she saw two paths for her son, one where he did not go and remained home -
living a long and prosperous life but eventually dying a mortal death and having
his name forgotten to time - and the other where he would go to Troy and win
immortal glory but never return home again.

Achilles is a character that is plagued by the understandings he possesses of his

position and what might have been his at every turn. He is cruelly cheated again
and again by both mortals and Gods and he knows this and yet he must make the best
decision he can while playing a game where the cards are already stacked against
him. He must choose between obscurity, happiness, and loyalty to family against
what to all ancient Greeks was the most important thing ever - glory in war.

Coming back round to the meeting with Priam, Achilles finds himself resolved to the
fate his mother saw; he knows he will never return home again and that his father
will die alone without his only son to care for him. His heart is heavy with this
burden as fame seems a cold consolation prize. (Remember, Hector's body lays just a
short distance away in the dirt near his tent after being dragged around the
outside of the city all day by Achilles) Then enters Priam. The father of the man
he just killed and defiled - a man very much like his own father, weakened by time
and without his son, his sworn enemy in a time of war - who then kneels before him
and kisses the hand of the man who murdered his son and begs for the return of his
body to show him honor in death with a proper burial. Priam is a man on the other
side -- the enemy - and yet he shows Achilles more honor and respect than the
leader of the Greeks, Agamemnon. Priam offers Achilles riches and war gear as
tribute for his son's body - which was a common and honourable tradition in war.
Priam by the very act of coming through the camp of his enemies - a camp of tens of
thousands, by the way - and then enters into the tent of their greatest warrior who
killed his own son earlier that same day is courageous to an unbelievable level. I
would argue that Priam taking this risk and prostrating himself before Achilles is
the single most tragic and heroic act in the Iliad and perhaps in all of western
literature. And why does he do this? He does it not for fame but for love of his
son and for upholding the traditions of honor.

The comparison of Priam and Agamemnon in their relationships to Achilles can be

used as a lens to understanding the Iliad. It allows us to understand it both
through a modern perspective as well as how the Greeks themselves saw it. War is
never so simple as good and evil, friend or foe, and even those who romanticize war
as being filled with glory must recognize that there is a bitter tragedy inherent
within it as well that makes us question if it was truly justified, if was truly
worth it. Achilles is the personification of Greek glory not in spite of the
tragedy connected to him but because of it. He knows what is going to happen before
it happens and that gives that much more gravity to the decisions that he makes. He
chooses never to go home again and yet in that amazing moment with Priam he is
reminded of a different kind of glory and honor than that which is found on the
battlefield and this gives him a kind of peace that war and the glory derived from
it never could. If he would never return home to care for his own father then he
would recognize the courage and honor in his enemy, a father who simply wishes to
bury his own son. This is all the more poignant as Achilles' father will soon die
alone without a son to show him the same honors.

Priam and Agamemnon represent the two polar great ideals in the ancient world that
drove the Greeks; that of glory in war and that of honor in acting in accordance
with tradition towards others. Achilles has been cruelly treated on both fronts by
virtually all sides and even after achieving the heights of one - glory in war - he
knows it is bitter and really a sham compared to what could have been his. This one
moment with Priam truly belongs to him and allows him to make a decision that is
his own, it is a moment of true choice and ultimately redemption. This forever
places Achilles as a paragon of heroic tragedy and one that makes us question what
it is that we value and what drives us to act as we do. When we are forced to make
these choices we must often adhere to one set of ideals that can and often do
conflict with others - others that are no less valid or legitimate. War forces us
to do terrible things, to others and to ourselves.